ABOUT BY PLAY-BY-MAIL

HISTORY

Play-by-mail (PBM) games have been around for quite a long time.
It's generally recognised that chess players were the first to play games
through the post, and they started almost as soon as there was a postal service.
After that the first play-by-mail games were commercial board games
adapted for postal play. Diplomacy was the first to be played on a wide scale.
Purpose-built play-by-mail games first appeared in the 1970's and have been growing
in popularity ever since.

At Software Simulations and Ab Initio Games we've been designing and running
professional play-by-mail games since the early 80's after "crossing over"
from postal Diplomacy.

Since the mid 1990's email and the Internet have continued to expand and we've
continued to develop existing games to run "via the net" as well as designing
games expressely for internet play (which allows much quicker turnaround times
than relying on the post).

The type of game that works best this way is important. If you like the sort of
game that involves plenty of thinking, where you make up plans, decide between
different tactics and strategies, then test your ideas to
see how well they work - that's what works best.
If the game isn't worth thinking about between turns, and you can't remember what
you were doing a week ago, then it's not going to be interesting for long.

OPPONENTS

One of the main advantages of play-by-mail games is the availability of opponents.
Depending upon the game, you'll be playing against between half a dozen and
thirty "live" opponents, rather than a computer program.

The fact that you're playing against other active players rather than against
the computer means that every game is different (unlike a computer game where
you soon learn what your computer will do in each situation).
Many players enjoy the challenge of a battle of wits against active opponents,
which is very difficult to arrange in any other sort of game.

SIMULATION GAMES

In a simulation game (like our sports simulations) you're taking the role of
a real-life coach or manager. The team you coach or manage is not the same as
the real-life team. The names and those of the players are usually the same
but the team and player strengths will vary according to your decisions - the
game has to be able to respond to your decisions and it wouldn't be able to if
player details had to be the same as real life.

For these games play-by-mail is ideal for the detail involved.
The players usually don't get to know exactly how everything works, and this
information remains secret to the programmer. The players have to simply play
the game as they see it, rather than simply "playing the rules".

An advantage with sports games is that many players find the games increase
their appreciation of the sport in real-life. Often you'll find through playing
the game you'll learn more about the real-life game and understand it better
than when you started.

STATS GAMES

In our stats games we take a slightly different approach. Instead of real teams
with imaginary players we have imaginary teams with real players.
Each stats game runs in parallel with its real-life sport, and results are decided
by the real-life performances of your players (when a player you picked in your
team scores in real life then he scores for you as well).

A big difference from the sort of game you might see in a newspaper is that our
games are still proper league and simulation games. Each player can sign for only
one team in each league (always the highest bidder) so that players can be bought
and sold from team to team. Teams carry over from season to season so that when
you're not winning you can build for next season by signing players for the future.

PLAYER INTERACTION GAMES

Some people might tell you that all play-by-mail games are about player
interaction, mainly because live opponents are what play-by-mail can offer than
other games can't - but sports games are about sports first and interaction second.
In a true player-interaction game the real "action" is what happens between the
players, making and breaking alliances, making deals and making enemies.
In these games you definitely play the man, not the ball, so
they're usually wargames or business games, where you work together
with some of the players and against some of the others.

GETTING STARTED

When you first start in a play-by-mail game it may seem quite daunting.
The games are often fairly complex and it often takes a few turns to get to
grips with the rules and all of the aspects of the game.
However, this isn't a reason to be put off. If a game is so simple to play
that you can pick everything up straight away it's unlikely to be a game
that will continue to hold your attention for very long.
Our games are designed for long term enjoyment and there are players
who've been playing in the same game for ten or fifteen years quite happily.

Most established postal players will tell you that postal games are a very
exciting way to play.
One or two weeks per turn may seem quite slow at first, but you'll soon
find that you're using a lot of that time for thinking and planning.
Once you've sent in your instructions you'll probably find yourself
patrolling the doormat each morning (or the mailbox each evening for email)
in anticipation of receiving your results.

If you want to play more often then most people do that by playing more than
one game.